Tuesday Things: I Am Grateful

Knitting: I’m working on my November socks still. I had my first one done quite early in the month. Then I got sidetracked. Then I started cruising a long on my second one and now…I’m going to need to sit down and get to work this weekend! Especially, if I’m going to be giving any knitted gifts this year (I have yet to give a hank of yarn with a tag saying what it will someday become, but I’m not ruling that out for this year!)

Watching: I ordered the second season of Outlander. It’s still steamy but didn’t seem quite as much so as last season (no complaints, just an observation). The show has now caught up to where I left off reading. I can’t decide if I want to read to find out what happens or just watch. (I loved the beginnings and endings of the books I read, but found many parts in the middle to be just SLOGS.) The new season of The Affair has started and the first episode was amazing. I like this show a lot. I watched a few episodes of The Divorce. I liked the first two and then just…eh.

Reading: I lost my copy of The Orchardist. I took it away with me on a weekend adventure and proceeded to set it down somewhere. Violet asked me to read the book The Scavengers by Michael Perry because her teacher is doing it as a read-a-loud so I said I would. I liked it. I like Michael Perry. In part because he writes about areas I know and it makes me feel like I’m in on the joke. This one skewed young. I liked the premise/theme but it certainly wasn’t the best post-apocolyptic story I’ve read. (2.5 stars)

Cooking: Lots and lots of things that go in the crockpot. I used to think those people who couldn’t manage to sit down as a family for dinner were crazy. I mean…just sit down for dinner. But this year, I’ve definitely had to eat my words. With activities, work schedules, and kids who need a 7:30 bedtime, we’ve definitely had nights where I eat with one child, leave it on warm and head off to an activity, only to have Jesse come home with the other and eat together. Any quick meals you can recommend? Soups and stews are especially good as it’s FINALLY starting to feel like November around here. (Maybe snow tonight/tomorrow. Fingers crossed!!!)

Finally, if you happen to be celebrating Thanksgiving this year (and even if you aren’t), I hope your week is filled with family, food, and friendship. Thanksgiving is always my favorite and lately it’s being usurped by that brighter and flashier (and more consumer focused) Christmas. And I love the Christmas season but I’m sad that our holiday of gratitude is being taken over (in particular this year), when I think we all could use the reminder to open our hearts and hearths to our neighbors (in particular, the ones who are different from us) and share the many gifts we’ve been given. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving. XOXO.

Happy Thanksgiving to you Kate! I’ve always preferred the holiday of gratitude to the one of giving and getting. I’m with you. I did break down and do some shopping already, though I didn’t meet my goal of being completely done by Thanksgiving. I want to be able to focus on enjoying the time of year this time around. We’ll see how it goes.

I think — if your family knows that in general, you are a “finisher-of-projects” — that a skein of yarn and a promise to knit X is totally acceptable 🙂 . (I wonder at times if it isn’t even PREFERABLE — this way the recipient has the opportunity to have a say in style and colour (“Oh, thank you, that’s great … buuu-uuut, maybe we could actually choose a different colour because I’m quite sure I won’t make use of X in the colour you chose?”)).

I’m curious — once your year of socks is over, will you be relieved and leave off knitting socks for a good long while? Or do you feel like you are *always* going to have socks on the go?

I remember you saying you weren’t quite enthralled with The Orchardist — now that you’ve misplaced your copy, do you feel like you need to (say) borrow a copy from the library in order to finish it?

Ah, slow cooker days … I was just thinking the other day that it’s been *forever* since I’ve used my slow cooker. Now that we’re down to one child at home the pace is MUCH slower. Both his activities are actually on the same night, and I’ve just been making sure to have leftovers available so he can have a quick (and early) supper before we head out.

We got a skiff of snow on the weekend! It’s gone now, but was lovely to see 🙂 .

Happy Thanksgiving, Kate! We had ours already in October, and won’t be celebrating (at the time you’re likely to be sitting down to dinner I’ll be sitting in a hockey arena, knitting and watching my son practice) but I will definitely be thinking of all my American friends, both the IRL ones we left behind in Minnesota as well as the pen pals I’ve met via blogs. I’m very grateful for your friendship, Kate 🙂 .

Hey there, I’m Kate!

I love yarn, photography, books, and a good cup of coffee. I blog like it's 2007. I write a lot about knitting, Netflix, and any other nonsense that strikes my fancy. Sometimes I get ranty. Welcome to my little corner of the internet!